(Original post by Martie08)
Fourteen.
I know, I can hardly wait! Then we've got the fun of real GCSEs, and then the fun of starting the hell that are A-Levels. Oh, wait, the new A-Levels that no-one's done before, and will have the benefit of having zero past papers apart from a couple of specimens!
I'm feeling really optimistic about my academic future, as you can tell...

Hello

I was just wondering exam papers will not be changing just b/c of the linear changes?

(Original post by Martie08)
Fourteen.
I know, I can hardly wait! Then we've got the fun of real GCSEs, and then the fun of starting the hell that are A-Levels. Oh, wait, the new A-Levels that no-one's done before, and will have the benefit of having zero past papers apart from a couple of specimens!
I'm feeling really optimistic about my academic future, as you can tell...

ohhhmygod I hadn't even considered that we'll have no past papers we'll have to practice with both AS and A2 level papers to make sure we cover the whole syllabus.

I was just wondering exam papers will not be changing just b/c of the linear changes?

Oh, yes they will, unfortunately it isn't just going linear but the spec content is changing - not hugely, but enough so that I'd imagine past papers won't really be much use. I assume question wording and exam layout will change too, so that it's going to be hard to work on exam technique.

Oh, yes they will, unfortunately it isn't just going linear but the spec content is changing - not hugely, but enough so that I'd imagine past papers won't really be much use. I assume question wording and exam layout will change too, so that it's going to be hard to work on exam technique.

Yeah I'm glad about the English, although of course it's dropping from 40% to 20%. (For Lit, I don't know about Language).
Labour have said they'll reverse the changes if they come into power, but I don't really see how that will happen seeing as the election is in May, after schools will have done a lot of the preparation and specifications have been written, etc...

(Original post by Martie08)
Yeah I'm glad about the English, although of course it's dropping from 40% to 20%. (For Lit, I don't know about Language).
Labour have said they'll reverse the changes if they come into power, but I don't really see how that will happen seeing as the election is in May, after schools will have done a lot of the preparation and specifications have been written, etc...

Yeah, it's only gonna be 20%. I wanna do English Lit for A-level and the coursework section is going to be a massive help. What books are you studying this year for English Lit?

Ughh, they really need to stop messing around with the education system
The new changes that are coming in is similar to what it was like when the O-levels where in place..

(Original post by Martie08)
Fourteen.
I know, I can hardly wait! Then we've got the fun of real GCSEs, and then the fun of starting the hell that are A-Levels. Oh, wait, the new A-Levels that no-one's done before, and will have the benefit of having zero past papers apart from a couple of specimens!
I'm feeling really optimistic about my academic future, as you can tell...

Drat, I'd forgotten about past papers. The thing is though, even if Labour reverse the changes our year might still have to do the new ones because May is a bit late to change.

Question: are the changes in all subjects or just the facilitating subjects minus languages? The A levels I'm thinking of taking aren't facilitating subjects (Government and Politics, Philosophy, Chinese and Music - unsure of whether to wholly drop core though) so I'm wondering if I'll have the changes.

(Original post by Steliata)
Drat, I'd forgotten about past papers. The thing is though, even if Labour reverse the changes our year might still have to do the new ones because May is a bit late to change.

Question: are the changes in all subjects or just the facilitating subjects minus languages? The A levels I'm thinking of taking aren't facilitating subjects (Government and Politics, Philosophy, Chinese and Music - unsure of whether to wholly drop core though) so I'm wondering if I'll have the changes.

(Original post by Cherx)
Yeah, it's only gonna be 20%. I wanna do English Lit for A-level and the coursework section is going to be a massive help. What books are you studying this year for English Lit?

Ughh, they really need to stop messing around with the education system
The new changes that are coming in is similar to what it was like when the O-levels where in place..

For Eng Lit we're rather unoriginally doing OMAM and An Inspector Calls. Yeah, I seem to be rather good at coursework, having got 100% on all my CATs in both Lit and Lang. I don't seem to do quite as well in exams, but I'm still confident for A*s especially in Language seeing as I only have to get a low-ish A in the exam for an A* overall, and the grade boundaries are generally quite low.

(Original post by Steliata)
Drat, I'd forgotten about past papers. The thing is though, even if Labour reverse the changes our year might still have to do the new ones because May is a bit late to change.

Question: are the changes in all subjects or just the facilitating subjects minus languages? The A levels I'm thinking of taking aren't facilitating subjects (Government and Politics, Philosophy, Chinese and Music - unsure of whether to wholly drop core though) so I'm wondering if I'll have the changes.

(Original post by Martie08)
For Eng Lit we're rather unoriginally doing OMAM and An Inspector Calls. Yeah, I seem to be rather good at coursework, having got 100% on all my CATs in both Lit and Lang. I don't seem to do quite as well in exams, but I'm still confident for A*s especially in Language seeing as I only have to get a low-ish A in the exam for an A* overall, and the grade boundaries are generally quite low.

(Original post by Cherx)
I'm doing An Inspector Calls too.. I quite enjoy that book. Were also doing TKAMB , had to read it over the summer as it was such a long book :3

Have you studied any Shakespeare books?

Ugh, just my luck. All the subjects that I want to do for A-levels have been affected by the change

We did TKAMB in Y9, I know most people like it but I found it slightly patronising if I'm honest.
Yeah, we did Macbeth for our CAT. Quite liked it as it was very gory and violent
All my A-Levels have except from French which I'll probably drop at AS and therefore won't really benefit from it not being changed...

(Original post by Martie08)
We did TKAMB in Y9, I know most people like it but I found it slightly patronising if I'm honest.
Yeah, we did Macbeth for our CAT. Quite liked it as it was very gory and violent
All my A-Levels have except from French which I'll probably drop at AS and therefore won't really benefit from it not being changed...

In what way was it patronising? Yeah.. I didn't quite like the book. Others love it o_o

Lucky you, would have loved to have done that book. I'm doing Othello which is quite good and were comparing it to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

(Original post by Cherx)
In what way was it patronising? Yeah.. I didn't quite like the book. Others love it o_o

Lucky you, would have loved to have done that book. I'm doing Othello which is quite good and were comparing it to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Which other A-levels would you be doing?

I just thought it was very "preachy" at times. I don't know, I don't hate it and think it was pretty well written but, you know when you just don't get on with a book? It also might have had something to do with the terrible teacher I had in Y9. Thankfully my English teacher is much better now.

Well, this is definitely subject to change but at the moment I'm thinking Chem, Bio, Lit and French. How about you?

(Original post by Martie08)
I just thought it was very "preachy" at times. I don't know, I don't hate it and think it was pretty well written but, you know when you just don't get on with a book? It also might have had something to do with the terrible teacher I had in Y9. Thankfully my English teacher is much better now.

Well, this is definitely subject to change but at the moment I'm thinking Chem, Bio, Lit and French. How about you?

Ahh, I see what you mean. Just askin' casue I'm literally the only one in my class that doesn't like that book... Even the people in my class that don't like reading like it

I'm thinking of English Lit, History, Economics and Chemistry. As you can assume I have no clue what I want to be

(Original post by Cherx)
Ahh, I see what you mean. Just askin' casue I'm literally the only one in my class that doesn't like that book... Even the people in my class that don't like reading like it

I'm thinking of English Lit, History, Economics and Chemistry. As you can assume I have no clue what I want to be

Do you know what you want to go into?

Yeah, most people in my class seemed to like it too.
I'm not really sure either, but I figured taking Chem and Bio opens up most science routes. If I get brill GCSE results then maybe medicine, if not I've thought about all sorts of things, from Biochemistry to Dietetics. I'm best at Lit and French really but I just don't know if they'll get me anywhere careers-wise? I feel like I should take Maths but it's probably my weakest subject (though I'm still on an A* in it), and I don't know if I'd do well in it at A-Level.